Mars Express orbiter snaps an image of Mars’s ‘Grand Canyon’

By Georgina Torbet July 23, 2022

The sights of Mars are many and marvelous — and the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Mars Express orbiter recently captured one of the planet’s wonders, the Valles Marineris canyon system.

This enormous canyon system is nearly 2,500 miles long and over 120 miles wide, and is more than 4 miles deep in places. That makes it 20 times wider and five times deeper than Arizona’s Grand Canyon, according to ESA. This gigantic size makes it the largest known canyon system in the solar system, and studying it can help researchers learn about the geological processes which formed and continue to shape Mars.

This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows Ius and Tithonium Chasmata, which form part of Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon structure. This image comprises data gathered by Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on 21 April 2022. — This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows Ius and Tithonium Chasmata, which form part of Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon structure. This image comprises data gathered by Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on 21 April 2022. ESA/DLR/FU Berlin

The image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the Mars Express orbiter, shows two steep depressions called chasma: the Ius Chasma on the left and the Tithonium Chasma on the right. This is a true color image, meaning it shows the colors as your eye would see them, and you can see a large patch of dark dunes at the top of the image which look distinctly different from the lighter sandy-colored dunes seen elsewhere in the image. The dark sand which forms these darker dunes may have come from a nearby volcanic region called the Tharsis province.

This oblique perspective view of Tithonium Chasmata, which forms part of Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon structure, was generated from the digital terrain model and the nadir and colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express. — This oblique perspective view of Tithonium Chasmata, which forms part of Mars’ Valles Marineris canyon structure, was generated from the digital terrain model and the nadir and color channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express. ESA/DLR/FU Berlin

Another view of the Tithonium Chasmata was created from a digital model of the terrain made using data from the HRSC camera. This shows the dramatic structure of the canyon better, with large mountain-like structures which rise nearly two miles high. The patterns seen draping down from the peaks are caused by erosion, as strong winds push material down the slopes.

These enormous groves in the martian landscape are thought to have been created when tectonic plates pulled apart. Mars is not tectonically active today, and for a long time scientists thought that plate tectonics existed only on Earth. But research in the last decade has suggested that Mars was once tectonically active as well, and canyon structures like this are remnants from that time.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Tech News

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…

Space

Ingenuity and Perseverance snap photos of each other on Mars

The Ingenuity helicopter on the surface of Mars, in an image taken by the Perseverance rover. Ingenuity recently made its 50th flight.

Everyone's favorite Mars double act, the Ingenuity helicopter and the Perseverance rover, have been traveling together recently after spending several months apart. As they explore the site of an ancient river delta in the Jezero crater, the pair have snapped images of each other that were recently shared by NASA.

The Perseverance's cameras caught this great shot of Ingenuity, which, as noted in the rover's Twitter post, is now considerably dustier than it was when it first deployed from under the rover's belly two years ago. In its two years on the red planet, Ingenuity has made more than 50 flights, which is incredible when you consider that it was designed to perform just five flights. During that time, Ingenuity had to take a break from long flights to deal with the cold martian winter, but since the beginning of the year, the helicopter has been back, making some of its longest flights yet.

Space

NASA’s InSight lander looks into Mars to study the planet’s core

This artist’s concept shows a cutaway of Mars, along with the paths of seismic waves from two separate quakes in 2021. Detected by NASA’s InSight mission, these seismic waves were the first ever identified to enter another planet’s core.

NASA's Mars InSight lander may have come to the end of its mission last year, but data from the lander is still being used to contribute to science. Data that the lander collected on marsquakes, seismic events that are similar to earthquakes, has been used to get the best look yet at Mars's core.

The lander was armed with a highly sensitive seismometer instrument that could detect seismic waves as they moved through the martian interior. By looking at the way in which these waves bounced off boundaries and moved at different speeds through different materials, scientists can work out what the inside of a planet is composed of. The latest findings show that the martian core is around 2,220 miles across, which is smaller than previously thought. The core is also denser than previously believed The results also showed that around one-fifth of the core, which is made up of liquid iron alloy, is composed of sulfur, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen.

Space

Perseverance and Ingenuity play a game of tag across Mars

Perseverance looks towards the Delta on Sol 419, capturing this image with its Right Navigation Camera.

The Perseverance rover is currently trundling its way across Mars' Jezero Crater, on its way to explore an exciting location called the delta. It's the site of an ancient river delta, and scientists are looking forward to scouring this area for two particular reasons: firstly, because if there ever was life on Mars, then this is one of the most likely locations we could find evidence of it, and secondly, because it should be possible to find rocks from miles away that were carried to this location by the river long ago.

But it takes a long time for a little rover to travel across Mars' rocky surface, so Perseverance has been making slow progress as it makes the climb up the delta and toward the river deposits the scientists are so interested in. Now, though, the rover has a sidekick to help it, as the Ingenuity helicopter has arrived to join the rover and scout ahead to find the best path forward.